14 out of 14 people found this review helpful.
Compact Flash - The Clear Winner!
Date of Review: May 6, 2000
Compact Flash memory is expensive as hell, but for solid-state media, it's clearly the winner.
Largest Capacity of Any Portable Solid State Media
Currently, the largest Type-1 solid state capacity is 192 MB, and you can find it as low as $430 online. Compared to other type of portable solid-state media, the largest size for SmartMedia is 64MB, and for the ultra-small multimedia cards, the largest capacity is 32 MB. Furthermore, IBM released a 340MB MicroDrive--a mini hard drive in the form of a compact flash Type-2 card. It's not solid-state, but the fact that IBM could fit 340MB into something the size of a compact flash card--and that the MicroDrive actually works in any device that supports Compact Flash Type 2--is amazing by my book.
The extra capacity is awesome. For instance, in my Nikon D1 Digital camera, having a card that supports 128MB means that I can take 80 high-resolution photographs without having to constantly switch cards. You can't do this with any other portable solid-state media.
Works in a Variety of Devices
Most compact flash cards also support dual voltages: 5.5V and 3.3V, meaning that one card will work in a wide variety of devices, from MP3 players to digital cameras to Windows CE palmtop comptuers. SmartMedia, on the other hand, either works at 5.5V OR 3.3V; what may work in your digital camera (at 5.5V) may not work in your MP3 player (which runs at 3.3V).
Furthermore, I own several cards made by several different manufacturers. All work in my different devices fine. My Simple Technology 128MB card works just as well as my Kodak 32MB compact flash in both my notebook computer and in my Nikon Coolpix 990 digital camera.
Additional Features
As such some manufacturers are also adding USB support to their compact flash cards. For instance, the Lexar 16 MB card that came with my Nikon Coolpix 990 digital camera has USB support built into it, that is, I can plug in a cable into the card and connect it directly to my PC without having to buy any special adapters.
Some Drawbacks
Compact flash, though, is physically the largest of all the different types of ultra-portable media. But the ability to have large capacities are well worth it, and the compatibility with different devices is an added plus.
Cards I Own
IBM Microdrive 340MB (Type 2)
Sandisk 192MB
Simple Technologies 128MB
Sandisk 64MB
Sandisk 48MB
Kodak 32MB
Lexar 16MB USB Enabled
Kodak 8MB
